Kollywood’s thanksgiving to Chief Minister! The Tamil film industry’s Pasa Thalaivar Parattu Vizha to thank the Chief Minister for his largesse to the film industry was a grand starry affair at a packed Nehru Indoor Stadium.The function was graced by CM, his family members including Kanimozhi and Udayanidhi Stalin, Ministers and Amitabh Bachchan who was the special invitee from Mumbai.It was an evening of song, dance, drama and poetry which caught the imagination of the audience. The highlights of the evening were the song and dance performances by Prabhu Deva and Nayanthara, seen for the first time together in public. Prabhu Deva’s Michael Jackson number and mix of songs of various regions got a huge applause. Tamannaah’s solo dance number was truly classy and mesmerising.
Raghava Lawrence’s group dance with physically challenged children was widely appreciated and a moving experience for all. Karthi got a deafening applause at his first stage performance dancing to clips of the song Un Melai Aasaithaan with Reemma choreographed by Ashok Raja. Tamannah got resounding claps for her Ayan number choregraphed by Dinesh while Jeyam Ravi and Poorna sang a song from Dhaam Dhoom were highly appreciated.Bharath, Shammu, Sunaina, Jiiva, Aadhi, Shakti, Prasanna, Sneha, Jai, Keerthi Chawla, Krishna were some of the star performers of the evening. An entire contingent of TV artistes gave a scintillating performance. A specially composed song Va Va Valiba by Harris Jayaraj, was performed on stage by Krish, Chinmayi and others.
Vivek recited a long poem in praise of the Kalaignar while skits were performed by S Ve Sekar and Kuyili, MS Bhasker and Santhanam and Chinni Jayanth who gave a solo take on Amitabh Bachchan’s KBC programme, in Hindi, for the benefit of the guest from Mumbai. Venkat Prahu, Yuvan, Karthik Raja, Bavadharani and Premgi all sang a song in praise of the CM set to the tune from their Goa.Vagai Chandrasekar played the Kalaignar in a skit which had Sathyaraj as Periyar and Kovai Thambi as Anna. All the skits highlighted the various schemes for the needy implemented by the CM, an AV presentation on the Kalaignar’s work and career was also shown.
While Vikram, Suriya, Ajith and Vijay were invited to speak, the seniors took the dais at the end of the function where a giant momento in the form of a globe was presented to the CM by Amitabh on behalf of the organizers. The speakers included Bharathi Raja, K Balachader, VC Guhanathan, AVM Saravanan, Illayaraja, Rama Narayanan, Kalaipuli Sekar, Abirami Ramanathan, Paneerselvam, Viduthalai, Radha Ravi, Sarath Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth. Amitabh praised the Tamil film industry and the contribution of the CM, saying, “I am here for the love, respect and affection I have for the Tamil film industry. I have been through a wonderful journey through Tamil cinema this evening. The strength of the CM’s pen has created not only great cinema but also brought social change. As Kamal has said, I am a part of your industry and whenever my support is needed I am always there.”
In his speech, the CM thanked Amitabh for his presence and gave details of the housing scheme that would be implemented for the film industry workers. The organizers thanked the CM for his generosity and speedy approach in allocating land for Fefsi workers and film and TV employees and the commencement of the township that will be coming up shortly for their benefit.Some of the stars at the event included Prakash Raj, Karthik, Prabhu, Trisha, Vishal, Arya, Khushboo, Shalini, Saranya, Ponvannan, Bhagyaraj, Shanthnoo, Shriya, Karunas, Saravanan, JK Ritheesh, Vadivelu, Raveendran, Sivakumar, Sibi, Dharini, Ameer and several others apart from members of the producers and directors councils.
